Obama’s Tangled Alphabet Web *Open Thread*

The plot continues to thicken around the IRS and all of those non-profit organizations they targeted, primarily conservative and some religious. This violation of their power and public trust was first acknowledged by Obama as a scandal, then dismissed by Democrats and Obama as a “phony scandal,” a misdirection the MSM bought hook, line, and sinker, as it demonized the GOP, one of their favorite games.

Now, though, the truth continues to will out and it seems there are even more agencies involved in the IRS targeting scandal than previously thought. This has escalated to even greater heights, this tangled web of lies, deceit, abuse of power, collusion, and downright law breaking by those entrusted to uphold the law in the Obama Administration. It is staggering in its scope, what it says about this Administration, and what its implications for this country. It is, in short, disturbing.

Once again, we can thank Judicial Watch for continuing to push for documents from the government on this major, major issue, and not letting up. The Daily Caller has the story, and is it ever not good:

Newly released documents show Department of Justice officials, Internal Revenue Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were discussing prosecuting nonprofit organizations for allegedly engaging in illegal political activity.

An official “DOJ Recap” document obtained by the group Judicial Watch details an Oct. 8, 2010 meeting between DOJ, IRS and FBI officials, including Lois Lerner, where the administration employees discussed “several possible theories to bring criminal charges under FEC law” against groups “posing” as tax exempt nonprofits.

“The section’s attorneys expressed concern that certain section 501(c) organizations are actually political committees ‘posing’ as if they are not subject to FEC law, and therefore may be subject to criminal liability,” reads the memo from IRS Exempt Organizations Tax Law Specialist Siri Buller to top IRS officials.

Lerner, who was forced out of the IRS in 2013 amid a scandal that the IRS was targeting conservative groups, and her top aide Judy Kindell, explained to DOJ and FBI officials that “although we do not believe that organizations which are subject to a civil audit subsequently receive any type of immunity from a criminal investigation, she will refer them to individuals from [Criminal Investigations] who can better answer that question.”

Yep, good ole Lois Lerner was right in the midst of all of this, just as the House Oversight Committee made clear even as Lerner managed to get away essentially scot-free, even as she was “held in contempt” by the House. While she may have had to retire, she is living the life of Riley still drawing her pension and living in her very nice multi-million dollar house as opposed to sitting in a cell where she belongs.

[…] Judicial Watch says another document shows that just prior to the October 2010 meeting the IRS began giving the FBI confidential taxpayer information on nonprofits. The document obtained by Judicial Watch says the IRS gave the FBI some 21 disks with 1.25 million pages of taxpayer records.

“These new documents show that the Obama IRS scandal is also an Obama DOJ and FBI scandal,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The FBI and Justice Department worked with Lois Lerner and the IRS to concoct some reason to put President Obama’s opponents in jail before his reelection. And this abuse resulted in the FBI’s illegally obtaining confidential taxpayer information. How can the Justice Department and FBI investigate the very scandal in which they are implicated?”

[…]

“DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs. I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS,” Lerner wrote. (Click here to read the rest.)

That these agencies were working together to target these groups is stunning. Judicial Watch’s President, Tom Fitton, is absolutely right in asking who is going to investigate these agencies involved. To ask them to investigate themselves is LAUGHABLE, and no doubt would result in a “nothing to see here, move along, move along,” result.

But the collusion and lack of credible investigative authority are not the only problems here. The IRS broke the law when it sent all of those confidential records to the FBI. Oh, yes they did. From National Review:

The Internal Revenue Service may have been caught violating federal tax law: In October 2010, the agency sent a database on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups containing confidential taxpayer information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents obtained by a House panel.

The information was transmitted in advance of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s meeting the same month with Justice Department officials about the possibility of using campaign-finance laws to prosecute certain nonprofit groups. E-mails between Lerner and Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department’s election-crimes branch, obtained through a subpoena to Attorney General Eric Holder, show Lerner asking about the format in which the FBI preferred the data to be sent.

“This revelation that the IRS sent 1.1 million pages of nonprofit tax-return data — including confidential taxpayer information — to the FBI confirms suspicions that the IRS worked with the Justice Department to facilitate the potential investigation of nonprofit groups engaged in lawful political speech,” Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan wrote in a letter to IRS commissioner John Koskinen. The two lawmakers also raise questions about the timing of the meeting, just weeks before the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans recaptured a majority in the House of Representatives. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

So now the question is: what in the HELL is the Congress going to do about all of this? There is already talk of impeaching IRS Chief John Koskinen, a fate too good for him, if you ask me. But how are they going to deal with this massive breach of trust, ethics, and LAW, by these agencies?? Will DOJ AG Lynch appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the FBI and DOJ? Will the IRS be held to account? All of this still remains to be seen, but it is time, past time, for Congress to do its duty and perform real, MEANINGFUL, oversight over the IRS, FBI, and DOJ. Now is the time. We deserve no less than that.

54 Responses to “Obama’s Tangled Alphabet Web *Open Thread*”

Congress is not going to do a damn thing about this horrible government malfeasance. They are so entrenched they have become untouchable. Congress critters are so worried about the next election they do not have the time or interest in really doing anything for the country. We need a clean sweep of all government departments and i do not know if and when that will happen

Sadly, I fear you are right. Even with the few good ones in there who truly do care abt the country, there are so many others who care more abt their power than those whom they were elected to represent.

He, too, had been deported a bunch of times. This doesn’t even address all the other citizens killed by illegal immigrants.

When I hear these Dems claim that Reps hate Immigrants, it makes my blood boil. NO – Reps and Indies don’t hate IMMIGRANTS. Rather we oppose people coming into this country ILLEGALLY. That is a HUGE difference, and the Reps better be shouting that from the rooftops.

I remember nbc doing a story and sitting on the bridge watching all the kids cross to go to school free of charge in El Paso 15 years ago. It’s the same thing today. The university gives them in state tuition as well.

Oh, the article on the kids crossing is from 2007. Nothing has changed except that it is now easier for them to do it. Largest employer is the federal government, then comes the school districts. Very little private business. If Mexico did not exist, El Paso would still be a village.

Good grief, Mcnorman – that is so disturbing abt the tuberculosis!! This is the thing that just gripes me is that the Democrats act like enforcing the borders and upholding the Constitution is SO old-fashioned and silly. But there are reasons for it, not just diseases that are brought in, but criminals and yes, terrorists, making their way into our towns and cities. It is ridiculous.

Will you be surprised if I tell you that the only ones going nutty are the ones at a local hospital where a worker exposed babies to TB over a year ago? Seriously, third world diseases have no place in the US. Funny how they don’t seem to be a problem on the border…just another day.

Criminals abound. The court system in EP has been overwhelmed for decades. In the 80s a friend of mine had her father watching her home while she left town with her spouse. He stayed on Saturday and Sunday a kid watching through his living room window watched him murdered in broad daylight. The illegal team, one underage female and a known criminal male had broken into the house to steal. They bagged some jewelry. The kid was about 7 and it was his birthday party. He was watching for people who were coming over not a murder across the street. Guess what? The murderers were caught and nothing was done to them. They were released back to Mexico where they could return anytime. It’s sick.

And that is how it SHOULD be, Marge. For anyone to be elected for something like gender, skin color, or sexual orientation and NOT qualifications is just idiocy. And she has demonstrated with her words that “fool” is precisely what she is.

Nothing, but nothing surprises me when it comes to this bunch. I wish they would all find an island and go there. Just leave us alone to regroup, restore and revive again. They have done so much damage to this country. 😦

Victor Davis Hanson on how we are no longer a “Nation of Laws”. Every politician that uses that phrase, especially the POS in the White House, should be laughed off what ever stage he/she/they are on. We are a “Nation that ignores its own laws”. That is the sad fact.

Disregard For the Law is America’s Greatest Threat

Barbarians at the gate usually don’t bring down once-successful civilizations. Nor does climate change. Even mass epidemics like the plague that decimated sixth-century Byzantium do not necessarily destroy a culture.

Far more dangerous are institutionalized corruption, a lack of transparency and creeping neglect of existing laws. All the German euros in the world will not save Greece if Greeks continue to dodge taxes, featherbed government and see corruption as a business model.

Even obeying so-called minor laws counts. It is no coincidence that a country where drivers routinely flout traffic laws and throw trash out the window is also a country that cooks its books and lies to its creditors. Everything from littering to speeding seems negotiable in Athens in a way not true of Munich, Zurich or London.

And still the liberals point the finger of blame at the GOP. The murder of Kate Steinle has even the usually acquiescent imbeciles that support them a tad uneasy. However I expect any day now, perhaps today, for the left to complain that no one would care if she wasn’t a pretty white girl. Because “white” lives don’t matter donchaknow us being all privileged and all.

No kidding. They are finding every which way to not take responsibility for this, including from people like Feinstein who VOTED for sanctuary cities.

As an aside, I am so sick of people conflating “immigrant” and “ILLEGAL immigrant.” I watched a panel on Fox and Friends and the number of people who did that was the majority. The Dems have done a great job in making that the talking point…

The media has helped the left pervert the language to mean what “they” want it to mean. Anyone with a brain knows the difference between “immigrant” and “ILLEGAL immigrant”. Which means there are millions of liberals and thousands of media types, as well as the ever clueless “pundidiots” who do NOT know the difference. That’s the reason for perverting the language – to fools more of the fools.

Debra Saunders calls out the lefties on their flip-flop hypocrisy. We mean you Hillary, Feinstein, Boxer and Obama. And honestly does even the left buy into Josh Ernest’s b.s. about this all being the fault of the Republicans

? Wait, never mind, we are talking about the endlessly stupid left so they probably will buy into it. After all the lefties and their party are all about taking credit for everything and responsibility for nothing. Bottom feeding bastards everyone of them!

Democrats Scurry From Sanctuary Ship

Sanctuary City supporters cannot say they were not warned. Recently, ICE Director Sarah Saldana told a House committee that reduced cooperation from state and local governments “may increase the risk that dangerous criminals are returned to the streets, putting the public and our officers at greater risk.”
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., asked Saldana if it would help if Congress made it mandatory for local governments to cooperate with ICE — the sort of bill already rejected by Clinton, Feinstein and Boxer. “Thank you. Amen. Yes,” Saldana answered.

Then came blowback from the anti-enforcement community. Saldana released a statement that said such a law would be counterproductive and “lead to more resistance.” You have to figure her reversal was on orders from the White House. Asked about Steinle’s killing at a press conference this week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking “common-sense immigration reform.”

Could you believe the idiocy of Earnest’s statements trying to blame all of this on the REPUBLICANS?! Good grief. And not for nothing, once again for these petulant tantrum throwing toddlers, when you are told NO, it means NO and is an action all on its own. It does not mean you can stamp your feet and do as you want claiming the other side won’t do anything. They DID something – they said obey the law as it stands, not do an end-run around it and blame them for everything because you didn’t get your way. Such children these people.

Yes, it should be a wake-up call but for too many, it won’t be. Hell, in DC, they are voting on giving NON-CITIZENS the right to vote. That flies in the face of the US Constitution, but they don’t give a crap if it means they get what they want.